I finished knitting a sweater in early August and I forgot to share it with you. I didn't forget the sweater itself, a tee, and have been wearing it frequently since the weather started to cool. In fact, I think it will see a lot of wear.
This sweater came about on a bit of a whim. I had been admiring the pretty purple yarn in my lys, when I also saw the Noro spring summer knitting book that includes this pattern. This is the same book that had the pattern for the green cardigan I posted two weeks ago, although I knit this sweater first. The yarn is called Akari Solo,and it is a silk/cotton/rayon/mohair/wool and nylon blend from Noro yarns. I knitted the tee on a size 6 needle, which gave me a post-blocking gauge of 16 stitches and 24 rows to 4 inches. This is slightly looser than the recommended gauge of 18/26, but this yarn at this gauge felt stiff and tight to me on the needles even though the final fabric is soft with a gentle drape. I do not think I could happily knit it any tighter, and I think a more open fabric is often preferable in a summer knit. Anyway, it was easy enough to do the math required to adjust the pattern to my gauge.
Even so, I did mess up a bit although not with the maths. I modified the pattern slightly to adapt the fit to my own shoulders, and I intentionally knit it is a more closely fitting sweater than the designer had envisioned. However I also ended up modifying the pattern placement inadvertently. There are supposed to be three motifs across the bottom of the tee, and then two only following the first full repeat. I did not notice that in the photo, and, as I read the pattern quickly, with an idea already in my head, I misconstrued part of the instructions. That was completely my fault, although I am somewhat dyslexic (despite my heavy reading) and I do sometimes get instructions scrambled. At any rate, by the time I discovered the mistake, I decided I actually like my slightly eccentric placement, and forged ahead without ripping. I've always preferred that were a little off-kilter, or slightly off-proportion anyway, so this suits me perhaps even better than the original.
The resulting sweater is soft and comfortable. Perhaps not suitable for the hottest and most humid days of August, but perfectly fine when the humidity is lower or the temperatures in the 70s to even low 80s or below. It is also a good weight for layering with jackets and cardigans throughout the Autumn and Spring months, so I do believe this will see a lot of wear.
I used slightly less than 1 1/2 skeins, of 749 yards to knit this sweater. Inspired by my joy in this top perhaps, and spying the same yarn in a pretty yellow, I decided that I could combine it with the purple to knit another tee, in progress now, and shown below.
It ends up that I no longer object to simple stockinette knitting, and I like having a relatively mindless project on the needles for those days when I either am distracted or just tired (quite suitable after a tough day in the garden for example). I apparently also like knitting simple tees that I will wear, although I haven't yet moved onto simple stockinette on small needles.
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